Could Ukraine crisis push gold, US dollar up?

Russia’s war games in Ukraine could push both gold and the US dollar up this week.

“It’s going to be a hectic day when markets open,” the CEO of Dubai’s Mashreq Capital DIFC told Bloomberg this weekend. 

Risk-averse investors will likely turn to the US dollar and shun the stocks and currencies of developing nations.

Meanwhile, the precious metal also stands to gain due to its perceived status as a safe-haven asset.

Russia’s approval of military action in Ukraine has set a tone of uncertainty.

“No one likes conflict between two superpowers,” a managing partner of global wealth management at Mumbai-based Edelweiss Financial Services told Bloomberg. “It has an uneasy feeling in the markets.”

Another analyst told CNBC that the US dollar, bonds and gold could rally higher before the markets open.

But the yellow metal and the greenback often have an inverse relationship and Ross Norman, CEO of Sharps Pixley in London told CNBC that the “[g]eo-political tension in Ukraine is proving a mixed blessing for gold.”

“It is positive as safe-haven money flows in but it is also flowing into the dollar which is having a depressive effect on bullion prices,” Norman explained.

In fact, CNBC’s sentiment survey showed that 10 out of 18 of those polled believe gold will decline this week.